Brazil has become a focal point for financial technology companies, and Yves Berbert, country manager for London-based fintech giant Wise, underscored this sentiment in a recent interview.
He described Brazil as a gold mine of opportunities and cited expansion plans. Wise, founded in 2011 by Estonian entrepreneurs Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, is known for its digital financial platform that allows users to transfer money from Brazilian banks to the Wise app and convert it into various currencies, including the U.S. dollar, euro, and pound sterling.
Mr. Berbert said Wise’s primary goal in Brazil is to venture into serving legal entities, a step the company has already taken in the U.S. and Europe. In Brazil, Wise has focused exclusively on individual clients thus far. Even so, Brazil is one of the company’s top five markets, with more than one million Brazilian customers. Mr. Berbert said Wise’s goal is to expand this further.
To support this ambitious endeavor, Wise has significantly increased its workforce in Brazil, quadrupling the number of employees in response to Brazil’s strategic importance as a priority market. The company now has 100 employees in Brazil, contributing to its global workforce of more than 5,000.
Mr. Berbert also highlighted Wise’s adaptability to Brazil’s evolving financial landscape, noting that the company has enabled customers to use the PIX instant payment system for deposits since late 2022. He emphasized the convenience of PIX, which operates 24/7 and allows users to make instant transfers and access their funds anytime, anywhere in the world.
Wise’s investment in Brazil is in line with broader trends in the country’s financial sector. The PIX system, which is gradually supplanting traditional payment methods, has gained significant traction. A McKinsey survey of more than 5,000 consumers found that 14 percent now consider money transfers, including PIX, to be their primary payment method, surpassing the 10 percent who prefer cash.
In addition, data from the Central Bank underscores the rise of PIX, with the number of transactions outpacing traditional remittances by a factor of 11 in 2022, totaling more than 24 billion transactions.
The survey also found that 18 percent of respondents are replacing traditional transfers with PIX, and a remarkable 66 percent expressed a preference for PIX over cash. This growing acceptance of digital payment solutions such as PIX reflects the changing financial landscape in Brazil and aligns with Wise’s ambitious goal to further penetrate this thriving market.
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